numerous subdivisions of the clothing trade, and appeared to have been confined to the retailing of woollen cloths, the linen-drapers forming in the 15th century a separate fraternity, which disappeared or was merged in the greater company. It is usual for drapers to combine the sale of “drapery,” i.e. of textiles generally, with that of millinery, hosiery, &c. In Wills v. Adams (reported in The Times, London, Nov. 20, 1908), the term “drapery” in a restrictive covenant was held not to include all goods that a draper might sell, such as furs or fur-lined goods.
DRAUGHT (from the common Teutonic word “to draw”; cf. Ger. Tracht, load; the pronunciation led to the variant form “draft,” now confined to certain specific meanings), the act or action of drawing, extending, pulling, &c. It is thus applied to animals used for drawing vehicles or loads, “draught oxen,” &c., to the quantity of fish taken by one “drag” of a net, to a quantity of liquid taken or “drawn in” to the mouth, and to a current of air in a chimney, a room or other confined space. In furnaces the “draught” is “natural” when not increased artificially, or “forced” when increased by mechanical methods (see Boiler). The water a ship “draws,” or her “draught,” is the depth to which she sinks in the water as measured from her keel. The word was formerly used of a “move” in chess or similar games, and is thus, in the plural, the general English name of the game known also as “checkers” (see Draughts). The spelling “draft” is generally employed in the following usages. It is a common term for a written order “drawn on” a banker or other holder of funds for the payment of money to a third person; thus a cheque (q.v.) is a draft. A special form of draft is a “banker’s draft,” an instruction by one bank to another bank, or to a branch of the bank making the instruction, to pay a sum of money to the order of a certain specified person. Other meanings of “draft” are an outline, plan or sketch, or a preliminary drawing up of an instrument, measure, document, &c., which, after alteration and amendment, will be embodied in a final or formal shape; an allowance made by merchants or importers to those who sell by retail, to make up a loss incurred in weighing or measuring; and a detachment or body of troops “drawn off” for a specific purpose, usually a reinforcement from the depot or reserve units to those abroad or in the field. For the use of the term “draft” or “draught” in masonry and architecture see Drafted Masonry.
DRAUGHTS (from A.S. dragan, to draw), a game played with pieces (or “men”) called draughtsmen on a board marked in squares of two alternate colours. The game is called Checkers in America, and is known to the French as Les Dames and to the Germans as Damenspiel. Though the game is not mentioned in the Complete Gamester, nor the Académie de jeux, and is styled a “modern invention” by Strutt, yet a somewhat similar game was known to the Egyptians, some of the pieces used having been found in tombs at least as old as 1600 B.C., and part of Anect Hat-Shepsa’s board and some of her men are to be seen in the Egyptian gallery of the British Museum. An Egyptian vase also shows a lion and an antelope playing at draughts, with five men each, the lion making the winning move and seizing the bag or purse that contains the stakes. Plato ascribes the invention of the game of πεσσοί, or draughts, to Thoth, the Egyptian Hermes Trismegistus, and Homer represents Penelope’s suitors as playing it (Odyss. i. 107). In one form of the game as played by the Greeks there were 25 squares, and each player had 5 men which were probably moved along the lines. In another there were 4 men and 16 squares with a “sacred enclosure,” a square of the same size as the others, marked in the exact centre and bisected by one of the horizontal lines, which was known as the “sacred line.” From the incident in the game of a piece hemmed in on this line by a rival piece having to be pushed forward as a last resort, arose the phrase “to move the man from the sacred line” as synonymous with being hard pressed. This and other phrases based on incidents in the game testify to the vogue the game enjoyed in ancient Greece. The Roman game of Latrunculi was similar, but there were officers (kings in modern draughts) as well as men. When a player’s pieces were all hemmed in he was stale-mated, to use a chess phrase (ad incitas redactus est), and lost the game. Other explanations of this phrase are, however, given (see Les Jeux des anciens, by Becq de Fouquières). The fullest account of the Roman game is to be found in the De laude Pisonis, written by an anonymous contemporary of Nero (see Calpurnius, Titus). Unfortunately the texts are full of obscurities, so that it is difficult to make any definite statements as to how the game was played.
As early as the 11th century some form of the game was practised by the Norsemen, for in the Icelandic saga of Grettir the Strong the board and men are mentioned more than once.
The history of the modern forms of the game starts with El Ingenio o juego de marro, de punto o damas, published by Torquemada at Valencia in 1547. Another Spaniard, Juan Garcia Canalejas, is said to have published in 1610 the first edition of his work, a better-known edition of which appeared in 1650. The third Spanish classic, that of Joseph Carlos Garcez, was printed in Madrid in 1684. It is noteworthy that in an illustration in Garcez’s book the pieces depicted resemble somewhat some of those used by the Egyptians, and are not unlike the pawns used in chess.
In 1668 Pierre Mallet had published the first French work on the game, and elementary though his knowledge of the game seems to have been, even in comparison with that of Canalejas or Garcez, the historical notes, rules and instructions which he gave, served as a basis for many later works. Mallet wrote on Le Jeu de dames à la française, which was almost identical with the modern English game. The old French game is, however, no longer practised in France, having been superseded by Le Jeu de dames à la polonaise. Manoury gives reasons for believing that the latter game originated in Paris about 1727.
About 1736 a famous player named Laclef published the first book on Polish draughts, but the first important book on the game is Manoury’s Jeu de dames à la polonaise, in the production of which it is said that the author had the assistance of Diderot and other encyclopédistes. This book, which appeared in 1787, was to the new game all that Mallet’s was to the old French game, and until the appearance of Poirson Prugneaux’s Encyclopédie du jeu de dames in 1855 it remained the standard authority on so-called Polish draughts. The Polish game early attained popularity in Holland, and in 1785 the standard Dutch work, Ephraim van Embden’s Verhandeling over het Damspel, was produced. In German-speaking countries the progress of the new game was slower, and the works produced in the first half of the 19th century generally treat of the older game as well as the Polish game. This is also the case with Petroff’s book published in St Petersburg in 1827; and similarly Zongono’s, which dates from 1832, deals with the new game and with the older Italian game.
In 1694 Hyde wrote Historia dami ludi seu latrinculorum, in which he tried to prove the identity of draughts with ludus latrinculorum. This work is historical and descriptive, but contains nothing concerning the game as played in Great Britain. The authentic history of draughts in England commences with William Payne’s Introduction to the Game of Draughts, the dedication of which was written by Samuel Johnson. Payne’s games and problems were incorporated in a much more important work, namely Sturges’s Guide to the Game of Draughts, which appeared in 1800 and has gone through a score of editions. About this time the game was much practised in both England and Scotland, but the first important production of the Scottish school was Drummond’s Scottish Draught Player, the first part of which dates from 1838, additional volumes appearing in 1851–1853 and 1861. In 1852 Andrew Anderson published his Game of Draughts Simplified. A first edition had appeared in 1848, but the later print is the important one, as it standardized the laws of the game, fixed the nomenclature of the openings, introduced a better arrangement of the play, and, since Anderson was one of the finest players of the game, excelled in accuracy. In Anderson’s time little was known about the openings commencing with any move other than 11–15, and it was not until more than thirty years later that the other openings received
